Have you seen the latest CRM Developer Center? It is a great place for developers getting started with Dynamics CRM. The search has been customised and improved to find content only related to CRM, see below an example.

The new CRM SDK 2015 doesn’t give support yet for our known CRM Developer Toolkit, which has been part of the CRM SDK until CRM 2013. Basically, the CRM SDK 2015 assemblies have been compiled with .NET Framework 4.5.2, but CRM Developer Toolkit was compiled using NET Framework 4.5. See the next Microsoft article for more details.

For instance, let’s check the new assembly Microsoft.xrm.sdk.dll part of the CRM SDK 2015:

The good news are… we still can make compatible the Developer Toolkit with the latest CRM SDK 2015editing the .NET Framework in the corresponding projects of our Visual Studio solution. Let’s say we have the next CRM solution:

For plugins and workflows, we should update the references to the new assemblies and also the .NET Framework in the project properties:

After updating those references, we could still find the following error:

“The type or namespace name ‘Xrm’ does not exist in the namespace ‘Microsoft’ (are you missing an assembly reference?)”

This error is indicating you haven’t got installed the expected .NET Framework 4.5.2. Do right click on the same project and select Properties to check the version actually used:

If you are only getting old versions of the Target Framework, select “Install other frameworks…” that will take you to the next site:

After it has been installed, you get a new option in that previous list:

Finally, we need to do something similar with the CRM Package Project. But in this case, we will have to edit the project file and update the entry “TargetFrameworkVersion” to “4.5.2”. Start unloading the project:

Update the mentioned entry “TargetFrameworkVersion“:

Finally, reload the project again and everything should work now!

About this last part, I would like to say thanks to my CRM MVP colleague Scott Durow (@ScottDurow), who helped me to find that entry.

If you don’t update the package project, it may still compiled, but the actual deployment will fail and you should see the next warning in the Visual Studio output:

warning MSB3274: The primary reference “[Your Assembly Name].dll” could not be resolved because it was built against the “.NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2″ framework. This is a higher version than the currently targeted framework “.NETFramework,Version=v4.5″

warning MSB3275: The primary reference “[Your Assembly Name].dll” could not be resolved because it has an indirect dependency on the assembly “Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk, Version=7.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35″ which was built against the “.NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2″ framework. This is a higher version than the currently targeted framework “.NETFramework,Version=v4.5″

Using any version of Dynamics CRM, have you ever tried to find all processes that contain

A certain Step in some Business Process Flow

A Custom Workflow Activity that you have developed and you try to reuse in several Workflows

A Dialog that contains some particular question

An Action with an specific parameter

If so, probably you noticed that Advanced Find (an out-of-the-box CRM tool to create custom queries) is not enough.

Let’s just understand the anatomy of the processes. CRM uses internally Windows Workflow Foundation as its workflow engine, so that CRM processes are defined using XAML. So, when you create a process using the CRM UI designer, the platform translates it to XAML.

So, then, we are looking for those processes which XAML contains some text. Looking at the metadata of the Process entity, we can see there is an attribute called XAML:

Now the question: how do we interrogate this XAML attribute? Solution: CRM OData query

CRM exposes an OData service which can be easily consumed by external applications or even using the browser. See more information in CRM SDK. Because this service allows to access more attributes than the Advanced Find tool, we can use the next query to find the processes whose XAML contains a certain string:

The parts marked with brackets should be replaced with your corresponding context. The last condition is just filtering the Type of process, returning only those which are the actual Definition (Value: 1).

Another example. Let’s say you are using N52 Formula Manager and you want to find all processes that are using a particular Formula Genie. In our example, this formula is going to generate a Hashcode for a given contact based on its fullname. This hashcode can be used for de-duplication:

Now, I want to find all the processes that are using this formula at least in one of their steps. So I will use the next OData query:

During 2014 I have enjoyed helping the Spanish-speaking users group Comunidad CRM. It is a great community focused on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. They organise technical webcasts, training, forums, blogs and other activities like Twitter (@ComunidadCRM).

These guys are always active and keen to help you with any CRM question you may have. It doesn’t matter if you are a dummy or you are an expert, you can always contribute, help and learn from it. If you are interested in Dynamics CRM and you speak Spanish (or you want to learn it :) ), join @ComunidadCRM!

Just in December, I received a warming and rewarding email for my contribution and help to this community. This year 2015 I will definitely carry on helping them and sharing the new exciting changes coming with the latest version CRM 2015. Hope to see you around ;)

CRM SDK is now also available from the Visual Studio extension NuGet. This extension is a provider of third party packages where anyone can participate and publish their own ones. This makes very easy to add third party assembly references.

Install NuGet in Visual Studio from “Tools => Extensions and Updates”

Once NuGet is installed, create a Visual Studio Project (a library for example) and make right click on the Visual Studio project where the CRM SDK assemblies will be used. Select “Manage NuGet Packages…”

Choose the Online option on the left menu and search for “crmsdk“. A list with all the CRM SDK assemblies published by Microsoft will be presented. Choose the corresponding assembly based on its version.

In this case, I have installed the CRM 2013 assemblies:

Notice the new package and reference configuration linked to the project:

“packages.config” file in the project where the NuGet packages have been installed

New folder with the assemblies in the root solution folder. You can find the assembly file within the package folder. In this case, the new CRM 2013 SDK package contains two assemblies, see below:

New library reference have been added automatically to the chosen project:

Last week I noticed many of the icons in the buttons of our Online Team Foundation Service have been disappeared. This issue only happens with IE 10. I have tried the compatibility mode but no difference.

Local DateTime in UK could get a bit tricky because of the summer time, where it is one hour less in UTC time. This post will help you to find out the local Date.

There is a simple solution for this: Use the date only field from the dataset. When the CRM date attribute (e.g. “MyDate”) is declared in the Fetch XML query of your dataset, you get two SSRS fields in that dataset: MyDate and MyDateValue. The first one is a date only field in local time, so you can do something like Fields!MyDate.Value. The second one is a datetime field in UTC time. You are probably interested in the first one ;)

If you also want to force a UK time format, you can use the next expression:

Join leading MVPs for a two track one day event that tackles the delivery of Enterprise data platforms and analytics solutions.

Please register to attend either track 1 or track 2:

· Track 1 will focus on building of an enterprise data platform exploiting both cloud and on-premises technologies. We will also talk about how to handle structured and unstructured data, along with integrating a range of Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies to tackle architecture, process and governance issues.

· Track 2 will focus on the creation of Business Intelligence and advanced analytics solutions that utilise both structured and un-structured data. We will demonstrate the use of data mining and predictive analytics technologies and also demonstrate how advanced visualisation technologies can be used by business users to deliver the insight and action required to drive real value from data.

Join leading MVPs for a one day event focusing on technology that make up the Microsoft Integration Platform. Allowing organisations to leverage a combination of cloud and on-premise applications through the hybrid integration pattern.

Join leading MVPs for a one day event to understand how to manage your client devices in a single tool while reducing costs and simplifying management. Best of all, you can leverage your existing tools and infrastructure.

The explosion in devices, connectivity, data and the Cloud is changing the way we develop and deliver software. New infrastructure services permit existing server applications to be “lifted & shifted” into the Cloud. Attend a one day event to hear from MVPs about how Microsoft’s data platform and development tools enable you to develop, test, and deploy applications faster than ever.

Microsoft Developer Network has just launched. Microsoft wants to enhance the experience to add better support for the growing number of developers that are embracing Microsoft’s platform and technologies for the first time.

There were a few goals Microsoft targeted with the Microsoft Developer Network experience:

Simple: The new Microsoft Developer Network site is designed to help developers easily find information and get started with Microsoft more effortlessly. They heard from the community that finding the right information, often spread between different locations, could be challenging. The Microsoft Developer Network addresses that feedback by providing a single point of entry for all developers.

Relevant: They want to meet developers where they are and talk with them on their terms. With the Microsoft Developer Network, an iOS developer, for example, can quickly understand the opportunity available from our platform and then easily navigate to the educational or technical content he needs to get started.

Community Driven: Microsoft has an incredible developer ecosystem, and they wanted to provide even more opportunity for the community to engage with them and with each other. They designed the Microsoft Developer Network with that in mind, creating a “Perspectives” section with community blogs, an integrated social feed, and a “Connect” area that allows developers to tell their stories, get advice and connect with them directly.

The site launch happened last week for English-based geographies, but this is just the beginning of a phased worldwide launch. Expect to see the global launch roll out over the next few months!